Myra Robotics is excited to announce the new SCAXb KoRe. The new cost-effective integrated ATmega-XBee solution. Features include:
1] FT232 USB, DC power supply support and everything on the regular Arduino
2] Arduino Shield and XBee Shield Support
3] Breadboadable with underside male header pins
4] Integrated XBee module (XBee included)
5] Reset Transistor for wireless code uploading
6] Rock bottom price - Expected retail price $45 + shipping
Myra Robotics has sent KoRe's digital data for manufacturing today. We will get the boards back and assemble them as soon as we can for an estimated release date of June 5th. SCAXb version 1 will still be available.
I was wondering if you could make this using the new Arduino Mega chip.
I would love to see:
Arduino Mega
Integrated Xbee (Dedicated to one of the Mega's UARTS)
Built in FT232 w/USB Connector
Arduino Shield Stackable (Must be able to stack an LCD Shield on top of the Xbee)
It would be cool to keep it around the same size as the KoRe ... maybe design it so that it fits perfectly inside a small Pelican Case ... the ones with the translucent lids so you can see the LCD through it.
Thanks for that. There are several things on our minds. The most basic need we believe is to really make available affordable integrated wireless-microcontroller modules available to the Arduino community. That's what we think will be Myra's differentiator. For example, the Mega alone costs around $65 which we believe is ridiculous in the first place + buying an xbee shiled + xbee module !!!
Secondly, we believe the basic Arduino with Atmega328 is a more liked microcontroller board with a huge user base. So making the KoRe available is still an excellent first step. Once we have recovered from KoRe's investment and the kind of user response we get, we shall proceed with the Megas and other microcontroller boards. But you can trust us on our niche to make affordable integrated wireless microcontroller boards. Will keep you guys posted once KoRe is released.
I will also buy at least two KoRes.. the idea of integrating XBee with Arduino in a quite inexpensive systems is just great!
By the way - is there a reason for sticking with DIP 328s? There seems to be a shortage at the moment.. so wouldnt a SMT version be better? espeically as it would give the chance to add further stuff or to reserve some space?
In fact we have been making a few decisions for the last few days. And we really felt the need for replacing through hole with SMT components for scalability reasons. So we mostly should have the SMD version in place.
Thanks for the great user feedback guys! Do let us know if you have any questions and suggestions
Ver. 1 was really meant for some specific applications for our robots where we felt the need to have room for sensor connectivity instead of all I/O expanders and thought that people making robots would find this as a useful integrated solution.
However, with the KoRe the user gets a full Arduino board with integrated XBee at an affordable price which would serve a wider user base.
By the way one other question that we have to the user community is we have made the KoRe breadboardable with underside male header pins. However this only works with large scale bread boards. We are planning to make this as an optional solution where underside male header pins are not actually soldered but the user may solder them if he wants to? Or maybe the user just uses our new BreadConnect (http://myra-robotics.myshopify.com/pages/labs) solution for connectivity to the breadboard.
Ver. 1 was really meant for some specific applications for our robots where we felt the need to have room for sensor connectivity through I/O expanders and thought that people making robots would find this as a useful integrated solution.
Would be nice to have a KoRe shield for I/O expansion?
Hm... ok, i see your point ;0)
A shield for expanding IOs would be nice, yet i think that would be, or would maybe, too specific as the various expanders are quite variing. If i had to design such a thing i would try to make board that is simply having a socket and that would expose all the pins of the chip that you can stack on it.. so you can use virtually every possible chip for it....
As for your design - one thing i would like to see is an additional exposed Analog 4/5 (SDA and SCL) pair or even an array ov GND, 5V, SDA, SCL for I2C connections.. in case you would go forward to SMD parts you would maybe get the additional needed space for it...
Even though my order was going to be back-ordered and so I opted to get a refund, I look forward to doing buisness with Myra soon. he has a good operation going.
Xtian